They made the most of the lowered water levels (due to the building works for the new hydro plant at Radyr Weir) to clean out this stretch of the canal which looked like it had never been cleaned before! They collected over 40 bags of litter, traffic cones, plastic boxes, barriers… and a thong!

Members were amazed at how many aluminium cans they found buried in the stream bed and banks, some of which had obviously been there for many years, causing a huge problem for wildlife.

They also took part in a Keep Wales Tidy survey to calculate exactly how much of the litter was drinks-related.

Volunteers sorted cans, bottles and cups from the other rubbish and were astonished to find that over 60% was from drinks.

During September, KWT are gathering information on the issue to come up with possible solutions. If you have 10 minutes to spare please take the survey at https://t.co/cK9Yq6SZV7

A splinter team spent an hour removing the invasive Himalayan Balsam from the banks, opening up the views to the feeder stream once more.

“We are delighted to play our part in Be Tidy and do our bit to help Keep Wales Tidy. I was absolutely astonished with the amount of cans and plastic bottles we found in the stream. Much of it was very old, illustrating that these needlessly discarded items cause a hazard to wildlife for many years. This is a problem that needs to be addressed otherwise we will be mining rivers and canals for cans for years to come!”

“Once again I was proud to see so many volunteers give up their time on a weekend to improve the environment. Whilst you may get disheartened by people who litter, seeing the happy bunch of CRG volunteers swing into action to blitz the site is a delight to see”